Yesterday was a shitty day for me. The night before, I was forced to stay up for over 19 hours because of foot cramps. When I finally did crash it wasn’t for more than 6 hours. Being forced to be awake for so long and not sleeping enough left me tired and with a racy heart.

I was not only having severe cramping but when I wasn’t, I was having these weird pulsing and twitching sensations in random parts of both feet.

I’ve actually been noticing more cramping for a few months now and my biggest fear was that I was developing peripheral arterial disease. When I researched what could cause foot cramps in both feet besides hydration, I came up with hypothyroidism. I thought long-term hypothyroidism could cause heart attacks and strokes but it’s only recently that I learned it can also cause nerve damage. Other things that can cause this are high cholesterol and blood pressure. So naturally, I was worried that that’s what it was. I felt like I’d been drinking enough water but made a point to really monitor my water intake yesterday. No cramps woke me up last night, and even the twitching is gone. So maybe I wasn’t drinking enough, even though it felt like I was. Another thing that was discouraging was that I read that if you drink water to get rid of foot cramps, the cramps should go away within half an hour yet they didn’t. I let Galileo know what was going on.

I napped for an hour or so before our appointment. Then we took off for Palm Harbor. The lady that examined our eyes was very nice and she really put me at ease. It was probably the fastest and easiest eye exam I ever had. Love how they have a new handheld gadget to test eye pressure which isn’t as noticeable. Didn’t like that my pressure was up a bit. One eye was at 28 and the other at 29. The doctor said she was on the fence as to what to do about it and wanted to discuss it with me. We decided to wait and monitor it since the optic nerves look good. I’ve had enough appointments!

She dilated our eyes too. Not much change with my left eye, but my right eye is more nearsighted.

Her assistant said she had her gallbladder removed too, and that her surgeon didn’t warn her about the fact that most of the time she’d have diarrhea. I haven't had that problem, but I think that’s because my gallbladder simply stopped working. She had emergency gallbladder removal while pregnant.

Because he has Medicare, he was able to get glasses there, which he rarely wears anyway, the lucky guy! I’ll get mine online as usual. Have to get new lenses for the Quest too.

After we left the office, we headed for KFC. I’d been craving it for a while, but it was just OK. The chicken was great. It was just that the fries were too salty because I forgot to ask for salt-free fries, and the place smelled funny along with the usual blasting music. They had music going at the eye place too, but it wasn’t too loud.

After we ate, we stopped at Publix for bananas and blueberries. Then we got back, and as shitty as I felt, I managed to put stuff back that I had hidden in the refrigerator, oven, and dishwasher because we bombed before we left. Not for spiders but those little flying things that are really annoying. We wanted to get it over with before we got the rat.

I was pleased to see when we got back that he got the borders and liners down next door and there were two piles of rocks directly on the ground. They didn’t come in containers like they usually do around here. So that’s less to have to listen to. Looks like he should finish today and all he needs to do is spread the rocks around.

The only negative I can see with the rocks next door is that now the mower can't go right through. It has to pause to turn around, which means it's outside the window longer. Yet I don’t think we can afford to throw bark down on the rest of the side to keep the mower out from between the places. The side running along the driveway, sure, but not the rest of the side. I got a shot of the liners and rock piles for Irma, and once I get a shot of the finished product, I’ll send them to her.

Saw that Jim rejoined the group long enough to announce that his house had been sold and to offer up some furniture.

So the cage came yesterday and it’s lovely. Any smaller and it would definitely be too small. It would be too small if you didn’t let the rat out to run around for an hour or two each day.

We still have a little more rat-proofing to do. We got the fan and portable AC hoses out of the way and folded up the extra memory foam and put it on the closet shelf. We still have to block the space at the base of the oven on one side. It can’t get behind the refrigerator, and we don’t have to worry about it messing with a washer or dryer since we don’t have any inside the house.

Last night, I slept great. No foot cramps and even the twitching is gone. I also feel fairly awake for a change. I wish these days weren’t a rare luxury, but they are. I know that sleeping well means I’m going to be up forever tonight and only sleep for about 6 hours. I don’t doubt for a minute that the storms will return when I’m once again sleeping through prime storm time to break up my sleep.

I miss the days when I didn’t feel so unwell so much of the time. Either I’m tired, or my heart is racing, or my mood isn’t the greatest. Yesterday I began to worry I got it all wrong by saying I should live as long as he does. Today is the polar opposite but even the “good” days aren’t quite like when I was younger.

I still have days when I feel short of breath, even though the oxygen reader says I’ve got enough oxygen. I had that the day before yesterday.

Met with Helen a couple of days ago and I’m still not sure I’m getting much, if anything, from her. We talked about how brain cells end up in the intestines and how much trauma and negative thinking can impact how we feel. But sometimes it’s just not easy to control our thoughts! I haven’t checked it out yet, but she gave me a YouTube link to an endo in Tampa that is supposed to be really good with putting together the parts of the body in the way they need to be put together to make it function and feel best. She addresses anxiety as well as the different hormones and their functions.

Helen also told me that doing wall pushups is good for releasing serotonin. Or was it endorphins? Whatever the case is, I’ll try that particular exercise the next time I’m feeling my worst which is likely to be the next time I’m on nights.

Now that it’s been over a month since surgery, I’m going to do 5 minutes on the treadmill and 10 on the vibration platform. One form of exercise isn’t usually enough. The treadmill will give me more cardio and the vibe plat will give me more strength training. The skier barely raises my HR.